Season's First Shike

Buddy Bones and I hit the road Friday morning, August 28th, for our first shike of the year. Yes, that is a new word coined by me and if you use it I will sue you for all of your money. Not really. Please spread my brilliant creation around all you want and practice the concept because shiking is good for your health as well as your soul. It's also a lot of fun, or can be. The word is a combination of "shuffle" and "hike" which aptly describes what Buddy and I do when I am fit enough to keep up with him. We shuffle along and hike while we explore roads, take pictures, and have fun. Sometimes I call these things "adventure runs" because we seek adventure and find it by seeing new sights, spying wild animals, and sometimes meeting new people. For me, exploring roads alone is always an adventure.

I was at work, at lunch in our massive and spectacular break room this past Thursday when Katheryn Ledbetter and I bit food together and chatted about our weekends. "I want a place to run where I feel that inward excitement over the idea of going," I told her while I gnawed on a piece of chewy leftover pizza, made tough by too much time in the microwave. 

"Why don't you go to Malmaison, or to Eden?" She then proceeded to describe some roads in the Eden, MS and Hillside National Wildlife Refuge area near Yazoo City. I was stunned. Cha-ching. I didn't expect such good advice while eating a piece of pizza with a science teacher who lives in Indianola. But I always said, good advice is where you find it. Immediately the wheels started turning in my mind, and that inner intrigue, that sought excitement began to build within my innards.

I stayed with Mom Thursday night but came home before my wife left for work and began to get my stuff together. I had to pick up the day help and the plan was to be loaded and ready to go after I delivered the help to West Harding Street. To make a short story long, I was at one of the Malmaison hunter stations at 8:53. When Buddy and I shuffled away from the truck, the air was still cool. 

We started a gentle but steady climb as we left the Delta and entered the hills. After a couple of miles, the gravel gave way to pavement and trees lined the narrow road giving shade while the crows cawed overhead and crickets chirped from the roadside grass. I came upon an area that looked like a golf course but it wasn't, just a place where four houses sat in a partially opened field, but instead of cow grass, there was manicured lawn grass spread out over several acres of lovely hill, hollows, and pine trees. Somebody loves his lawn mower, I thought.

Later I came to a T in the road where the pavement went left and straight ahead turned gravel. I followed the pavement and the sign said I was no longer on Nixon-Flatt Road but on one named Sixteenth Section. This one went about a mile and ran into another paved road. I took a left for no reason in particular and not very long later I came upon Sparta Church and Cemetery. I had been here once when my wife's aunt was buried there. The procession that day had come from the town of Holcomb where I think I will park the next time I run this area. I snapped a couple of pics and headed back the other way. 

At the cemetery, I was 5.85 miles from the truck, so I didn't turn back onto Sixteenth Section Road right away but did an out and back first on what I now know is Sparta Road before coming back the way I had come. After I ran Sixteenth Section the second time, I headed down the gravel road at the T. I got to a house place that had maybe fifty dogs (OK, maybe twenty) who made such a fuss that I turned around and headed back. My goal for the day was twenty miles, but I was tiring and despite the cool weather at the start, it was now pretty warm. 

Going back down Nixon-Flatt was nice because first, a car pulled up and somebody said, "What are you doing out here, Zane?" It was Todd Fincher's dental assistant, Annette. 

"I'm just running and rambling," I told her. She had two dogs in her vehicle and told me that she and her husband are building a house in the area. It's always nice to know people who can help you if your body breaks down.

The second reason Nixon-Flatt was so good going that way was it is mostly downhill. I was shuffling three miles at a time and walking one. That pattern was about to break as my legs were wearing out. Before I got all the way back, I took a side road the add a little distance. Then I walked in to the truck with 18.01 miles, 13.7 of which was shuffling and 4.31 was hiking. I had had enough. I was tired, and Buddy and I considered the day a success. I think we will come back. There are a lot of roads I haven't seen yet, and thanks, Katheryn for the idea. If you have any more, let me know.